Customer-Data publicly available? what a surprise!

It's in the news here everywhere atm: The "Verbraucherschutz" (customer protection) in Germany was able to get the data of 4 million customers, including sensible data like bank-account numbers... and all this for 850 Euro.

And now everyone is surprised and outraged and certain officials start demanding higher penalties for companies and call-centers collecting personal information of customers. And while observing this I was just thinking two things:

1. Why is everyone so surprised?

Why is that? Did they all really think that despite the massive amount of data collected everywhere these days, all that data will be safe and secure and only be held by the respective company that qcquired the information in the first place? Were they all really that naive and blind? I mean: OF COURSE those data will get out somehow! There's money to be made, and for money you can get everything.

2. Where are you, Mr. Schäuble?

When there's the slightest indication of a "terrorist threat", our Inner Minister was always the first one to call for action, which usually meant data-mining and restricting our rights, no matter if the effectivity of those suggested measures where highly doubted or not. He was always all too eager to sacrifice the right of everyone to informational self-determination, just to "keep us safe". But where are you now, Mr. Schäuble? There has been a huge violation of the rights of 4 Million citizens. What will you do to protect us from further "attacks" like that? He's been surprisingly quiet the past few days. Well, not such a big surprise, since he might actually have to answer difficult questions, like what kinds of security risks the newly introduced mass data storage of all internet-traffic pose and how he intends to keep the data safe and secure.
In my eyes, it reveals the true intention of our Inner Minister: It's never been about our protection! It's about gaining control and increasing the power of those in charge - policitians, lobbyists and the companies they are involved in. And if this incident does one thing, I hope that it at least makes that truth visible to as many citizens as possible.

This incident shows clearly that the danger specialists and free-speech organisations have warned us about over and over again is true and actually very real: Once you collect data, it's gonna leak out sooner or later and will be publically available. Especially if someone thrives to get certain data, he/she will succeed when enough money and criminal energy is involved. Heck, this recent incident shows that you don't have to try hard at all to succeed.

The only way to ensure data-security is to collect AS LITTLE data as possible. Just as much as neccessary, but no more. That's why mass-data mining and -storage will never help our protection, it will cause alot more problems and injustice. We germans - above everyone else - should know better! There has been an "experiment" called Stasi before and we all know what it meant for the freedom and liberty of the people. And that was way before the digital age, where now data and information can flow much faster, spread alot further, can be stored in huge amounts and searched and scanned with little effort.